What Is HD DVD? Now What?
“The format war was confusing for buyers,” says a Samsung insider, when talking about Sony Blu Ray format vs. Toshiba/Microsoft’s HD DVD. When the dust settled, 1.3 million consumers had dropped hundreds of dollars on an obsolete machine. Despite being able to play old DVDs and purchase roughly 386 titles on HD DVD, people won’t be able to get any new movies coming out. “Now there are still HD DVD discs that people want to read; but no one wants to write to that format,” the Samsung insider revealed.
Manufacturers like Samsung and Sony are looking to win buyers’ affection with machines that cater to both Blu Ray disc and HD DVD owners.
Best Buy is offering a $50 gift card to people who purchased an HD DVD player or HD DVD Xbox360 unit before February 23rd. The gift cards should all be automatically mailed out by May 1st to “Reward Zone” customers or people who bought warranties. Other customers must call 1-888-BestBuy and have a receipt or credit card information ready, as proof of purchase.
Best Buy offers a trade-in center to scrap the old player, although you will not be getting a particularly good return on your investment. For example, a Toshiba HD XA2 unit, originally priced at $1,000, may fetch you $148.50 and HD DVDs $2.70 each.
We at Amazon.com value our customer relationships more than anything and would like to support customers who purchased these players by offering a credit good for $50 off any products sold by Amazon.com.” Any HD DVD purchase bought before February 23rd is eligible for the refund and the product can be turned in any time before April 9, 2009. It should also be noted that Amazon has consumer-friendly Blu ray sales as well.
What about all those XBOX360 users who hoped HD DVD would make their machines more updated and with better quality? Microsoft hasn’t exactly been bashful about their bitterness and contempt for the Blu Ray disc format.
They’ve at least agreed to offer an XBOX360 firmware upgrade, via the internet, that offers “compatibility improvements” and “additional support for network features.” One can only hope they get with the times and sign on with the winning team, which has been Sony’s Blu Ray DVD.
Filed under: Computers & Technology